During this conference we will explore one of the most fascinating topics of our time, consciousness. Our world and life in general is becoming more complex. Change is occurring at such a frenetic pace that happiness and wellbeing sometimes become a mirage on the horizon of life. Coupled to these individual and collective experiences, humanity is now facing some of the most important challenges it has ever faced in the history of our species. How can a deeper understanding of consciousness and its role in nature provide us with some new paths and potential solutions to the many challenges the world is facing today, and to serve in the evolution of a more just, fulfilling, and sustainable world?

Speakers:

Dr B Alan Wallace

With his unique background in both Tibetan Buddhism and Science, Dr Wallace brings deep experience and applied skills to the challenge of integrating traditional Indo-Tibetan Buddhism with the modern scientic study of the mind. In recent years he has worked with the Mind and Life Foundation and his own Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Study, to develop ways of studying meditation. He also has a degree in Physics.Dr. Wallace will speak on “Restoring Meaning to the Universe.” This talk will present a radically empirical perspective on human existence as a way of understanding the mind-body problem. We will then turn to the primary role of information in quantum cosmology, which is said to be more fundamental than matter or energy. In both individual human existence and the universe at large, the “observer-participant” plays an essential role, which thereby restores meaning to the natural world.

Dr Peter Malinowski

Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the School of Natural Sciences & Psychology Liverpool John Moores University. His research covers selective visual attention, the psychological and physiological effects of meditation, as well as the evaluation of Mindfulness training programmes. In relation to Buddhist meditation practice Peter is interested in investigating the changes that take place in the psychological as well as the physiological domain when people engage in regular meditation practice. Dr Malinowski will speak on: “Cognitive Neuroscience: Bringing Together Brain and Mind”. This will include the relation between neural events and their subjective correlates, and how subjective experience infuences the brain and vice versa. He will also speak on the role and signicance of first-person experience in the study of the mind and brain.

Dr Harald Atmanspacher

Head of the Theory Department at the Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology, Freiburg, Germany since 1998. He is also Faculty Member at the C.G. Jung-Institut, Zurich; Faculty Member of Parmenides Foundation, Munich; and Associate Fellow at Collegium Helveticum, Zurich. His research expertise is in the theory of complex systems, conceptual aspects of (algebraic) quantum theory and mind-matter relations from interdisciplinary perspectives.Dr Atmanspacher will speak on: “The hidden side of Wolfgang Pauli and his correspondence with Carl G Jung.” Wolfgang Pauli is well recognized as an outstanding theoretical physicist, known for his pioneering role in the development of quantum mechanics in general. Less well known is his work in different avenues of human experience and scholarship, ranging over fields such as the history of ideas, philosophy, religion, alchemy, and the psychology of C.G. Jung